Field
Certain aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to robotics and, more particularly, to onboard vision-based localization, mapping, and planning.
Background
Robots may be designed to perform behaviors or tasks with a high degree of autonomy. A robot may use different modules and components for performing various tasks. For example, the robot may have different components for localization, mapping and planning. Localization is directed to solving the problem of determining where the robot is located. The robot receives input from its sensors to understand where the robot is located within its environment.
Mapping is directed to building a representation of the environment. For example, mapping is used to determine which portion of the environment is occupied and which parts are free space. Furthermore, mapping may prevent the robot from colliding with obstacles.
Planning is directed to determining how to perform a task after the robot knows the layout of the environment and how it will travel from point A to B. That is, in some cases, prior to moving from a current position to a target, it is desirable to determine the trajectory (e.g., path) to the target with the lowest cost from multiple candidate trajectories evaluated during a planning phase.